Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2010. Its description of Google Books (previews, “find it in a nearby store,” an affiliate-style partner program) reflects that year, and Google’s book sales later moved to Google Play Books. Predictions that paper books would disappear are 2010 forecasts.
Google Books currently offers the same opportunity to make money to professional publishers and writers as to new, unknown writers, because for the first time readers will be able to look at the content before buying a book.
There is talk that some day, not too far off, paper books will tend to disappear, giving way to their new competitor, the e-book. Meanwhile, the two formats will keep competing in the market, just as the CD once did with the cassette and the DVD with the VHS tape.
What Google Books is
For readers, it lets you search on Google itself and be shown the books that cover the topic you searched for. Once you’re interested in a book, Google lets you view some of its pages online so you can check whether you want to buy it.
You can buy it online, or you’ll immediately be shown the nearest store where you can get the book. You’ll be able to buy out-of-print books, well-known books or books by new writers.
For writers and publishers, it works as an affiliate-style program through which they can sell their books online and make their work known.
This is a great opportunity for new writers. They may struggle to get a publisher to take on their book, but with Google Books all they have to do is write it and convert it to PDF.
Once that’s done, the book will compete in the market alongside the professionals. If you ever dreamed of being a writer, or you have something good to offer the world through your writing, you have a real future opportunity in the market for online books, which sooner or later will be the market of the future.
I wish you the best of luck. You can visit the Google Books homepage and its partner program.
Further reading
- The only secrets to getting rich
- 10 business ideas with no investment
- 15 types of business nobody has exploited yet
- The businesses of the future
Featured image: Paulpaul, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
